July 1 …

While the institution officially recognizes July 1, 1899 as its founding date, the history of Virginia Union University dates to 1865, when Richmond Theological Institute was established amid the ruins of the Confederacy.

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The later date reflects the university’s creation through the merger of three institutions, each dedicated to educating African Americans in the post-Civil War South. These institution are Richmond Theological Seminary, Wayland Seminary of Washington, DC, and Hartshorn Memorial College.

In November 1865, representatives of the American Baptist Home Mission Society helped establish a school for newly emancipated African Americans at the former Lumpkin’s Jail in Richmond. Before the Civil War, Lumpkin’s Jail had been one of the largest slave-trading facilities in Virginia, known among African Americans as the “Devil’s Half Acre.”

After emancipation, Black ministers and northern Baptist missionaries transformed the site into a center of learning. The school evolved into Richmond Theological Institute and later Richmond Theological Seminary.

Under the leadership of educators such as Reverend Nathaniel Colver and Dr. Charles Henry Corey, the seminary trained hundreds of African American ministers, teachers, and community leaders who carried educational and religious leadership throughout Virginia and the South. The institution became one of the nation’s leading Black theological schools and a symbol of the transformation of slavery’s institutions into instruments of freedom and advancement.

A second important predecessor institution was Wayland Seminary, established in Washington, DC in 1867 by the American Baptist Home Mission Society. Named for Baptist educator Francis Wayland, the seminary trained African American ministers, educators, and professionals during the Reconstruction era.

The other contributor to the future university was Hartshorn Memorial College. It was founded in Richmond in 1883 through the philanthropy of Martha E Hartshorn to provide educational opportunities for African American women.

By the 1890s, Baptist leaders concluded that combining these institutions would create a stronger, more comprehensive university capable of meeting the growing educational needs of African Americans in the South. On July 1, 1899, the merger was formally completed, establishing Virginia Union University on a new campus in Richmond’s Barton Heights neighborhood.

The new university consolidated theological, liberal arts, teacher-training, and women’s programs into a single institution affiliated with the Baptist tradition.

In the early 20th century, Virginia Union became one of the leading historically Black colleges in the South, educating ministers, educators, missionaries, and civic leaders who shaped the region.

The university has produced numerous distinguished alumni, including:

• Douglas Wilder (1951), who became the first African American elected governor of a U.S. state in the 20th century;
• Samuel DeWitt Proctor (1942), who became one of the nation’s most influential Baptist ministers and educators; and
• Benjamin Mays (1916), who completed theological studies at Virginia Union, served as president of Morehouse College, and became one of the most influential figures in 20th-century African American education.

Virginia Union today enrolls approximately 1,600 to 1,700 students, including undergraduate, graduate, and professional students, making it one of the larger private historically Black universities in the Mid-Atlantic region. In recent years, the university has grown in enrollment, while expanding both traditional and online academic offerings.

Programs in business administration, criminal justice, psychology, social work, biology, mass communications, and health sciences remain among the institution’s most popular fields of study. The university has also introduced innovative programs in cybersecurity, data analytics, business analytics, public health, and hospitality management, reflecting changing workforce demands and emerging career opportunities.

According to recent university catalogs, Virginia Union offers more than 40 undergraduate majors and concentrations, as well as graduate and professional degrees. These are in many fields, including business administration, biology, criminal justice, public health, social work, and data analytics.

From its time as Richmond Theological Institute, the university has awarded thousands of degrees to ministers, educators, scientists, public servants, business leaders, and community advocates, continuing a leadership development tradition that spans more than a century. Its history reflects the determination of formerly enslaved people, Black churches, and educational reformers to build institutions that advance freedom through learning.

From its humble origins in a former slave jail, through a theological seminary, to becoming one of the nation’s enduring historically Black universities, Virginia Union University stands as one of the most remarkable stories in the history of American higher education.

Select Resources:

• Corey, Charles Henry. A History of the Richmond Theological Seminary. Richmond, VA: J.W. Randolph & English, 1895.
• Rudwick, Elliott M. “The Founding of Virginia Union University.” Journal of Negro Education 32, no. 3 (1963): 251–262.
• Moss, Alfreda M. The American Baptist Home Mission Society and the Establishment of Black Higher Education in the South. Valley Forge, PA: Judson Press, 1979.
• Rachal, John R. “The Freedmen’s Schools and the American Missionary Effort in Virginia.” Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 87, no. 2 (1979): 163–184.